Series 82 Cheat Sheet.
The night-before summary, built like the exam.

The numbers to remember

• 50 scored questions on the Series 82 itself
• 1 hour and 30 minutes total time allotted
• 70% passing score — there is no partial credit and no separate cut score by domain
• $100 exam fee, paid when your sponsoring firm schedules your appointment
• SIE exam is a corequisite — you need both the SIE and the Series 82 to register, and the SIE alone does not qualify you for registration with a FINRA member firm
• SIE itself: 75 questions in 1 hour and 45 minutes — treat it as a separate study block, not an afterthought
• Series 82 has been effective since May 2001, so the exam's core structure has had decades to stabilize

Content domains and weights

• Seeks business from customers/potential customers — 25 questions (exactly half the exam; prospecting, outreach, and communications-with-the-public rules for private placements)
• Provides information, makes recommendations, transfers assets, and maintains records — 13 questions (disclosure documents, subscription agreements, recordkeeping)
• Opens accounts after evaluating financial profile — 9 questions (suitability and accredited-investor eligibility)
• Obtains/verifies purchase instructions, completes transactions — 3 questions (order handling and confirmations; small but full-value)

High-yield review areas

• Rules around prospecting and communications with the public for private placements — the single biggest scoring domain, worth targeting first and reviewing last.
• Suitability and accredited-investor matching during account opening — know what qualifies an investor before a placement is offered.
• Which disclosure documents must be delivered, when, and what records must be retained afterward — sequencing questions are common here.
• Confirming purchase instructions against the subscription agreement before a transaction is completed.

Top traps

• Treating the SIE as a substitute for the Series 82, or vice versa — both are required, and the SIE alone does not register you.
• Spending equal study time across all four domains instead of weighting toward the 25-question prospecting function.
• Losing track of pace: at 50 questions in 90 minutes, dwelling too long on one scenario question eats time you need for the rest.
• Assuming near-perfect accuracy is required — the passing bar is 70%, not 100%, so build in a margin rather than chasing every point.

Run one full timed practice test the night before mainly to check pacing, not to cram new material — content review should already be done by then.